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The Township 
of Jefferson, 111. 

ITS VILLAGES 

AND 

"DINNER.PAIL AVENUE*' 



By ALFRED BULL 



Know Your Suburb and its Story, 
or Learn the Other Fellow's Chances 




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The Township of JeflFerson, 111, 

and "Dinner-Pail Avenue" 



From Mastodon to Man 



Geologic, Historic, Biographic Reminiscence and Research 
Through Flood, Swamp, Woods and Prairie 

Of Indians, French explorers, half-breeds, realty men, good 
gray wolves and other small deer 

Of Jefferson village, Irving Park, Grayland, Bowmanville, 
Maplewood, etc., as they were, are, and may be 

Of whisky at 12 >^ cents a pint and $2000 lots a-begging at 
$10 a piece (a few years ago) 

Of pioneer transportation, Indian trails. Plank roads, and 
of "Dinner-Pail Avenue" 

And of much beside, all akin to Jefferson, 111., once known 
as JEFFERSON, ILLINOIS CO., VA. 



Copyright, 1910, by Alfred Bull. 



''Those of our readers fortunate enough to meet Mr. Bull in Europe 
will find that he knows Chicago as few men do." — The late Col. John C. 
Bundy in his Religio-Philosophical Journal. 

''Give me a copy of Alfred Bull's statistics to show in the East. It 
is a complete refutation of the principal argument advanced in favor of 
New York." — U. S. Senator Shelby M. Cullom, in the Chicago Tribune, 
Sept. 23, 18S9. 



The Irving Park artist, Mr. Geo. E. Colby, who enriches these pages, 
needs no introduction to Jeffersonians, to other Art-lovers of Chicago, or 
to the enthusiastic audiences which greet his Lyceum Chalk Talks. 



The Township of Jefferson, III 

and ''Dinner-Pail Avenue" 



From Mastodon to Man 

Whether Red, White, "Black 
or Piebald 

BY 

ALFRED BULL 

Author of 

Jaunts Off the High Road, 

How I Found Rustle- Us, Etc. 



Illustrated 



1911 



ALFRED BULL, Publisher 
Irving Park, III. 



Know Your Suburb and Its Story, or Learn 
about the Other Fellow's Chances 



€GtA277106 



/NDEBTEDNESS to authorities for supplemental and un- 
usual information is gratefully acknowledged. 

From the Department of the Interior, the United States 
Post Office, the Director of the United States Census, and 
the Superintendent of the School Census. 

From friends of the writer, the late Gurdon S. Hub- 
bard, agent of the American Fur Company here in remote 
1818, George B. Carpenter, J. Young Scammon, Isaac N. 
Arnold, Professor Frank C. Baker of the Academy of Sci- 
ences, and Frank W. Smith. Cashier of the Corn Exchange 
National Bank. 

From efficient and zealous aids in the Chicago Public 
Library, the Chicago Historical Society and other learned 
bodies. 

From City and County Department Officials. 

From Moses and Kirkland's ''History of Chicago," Schick's 
"'Chicago and Its Environs" Andreas' ''History of Chicago/' 
and also his "History of Cook Co., HI.," Everett Chamberlin's 
"Chicago and Its Suburbs," and other wide reading. 

From a personally-conducted one-man Cruise in a 
Schooner's Dingey up the Odorous North Branch of the Chi- 
cago River in 187G. 

And from a multitude of gone or going pioneers and 
their living representatives of the second and third genera- 
tion; including many a village oracle, whose yarns were the 
more interesting and believable from frequent repetition, 
often most valuable in determining what to omit — custom.arily, 
his own highly-colored, improbable and libelous stories. 



CONTENTS. 

1. Before Man (as we know him) Was in Jefferson. 
Jefferson township and its villages. 
In the Pleistocene Period. 
The Mastodon. 
Under Gray Seas^ 
Geologic Strata. 
A Slough of Despond. 
A Portage. 

II. When There Will Be No More Sea. 

ni. Before Chicago Was. 

In Indian Days. 

French Explorers. 

Pere Marquette. 

An Indian Village was Irving Park. 

The Miamis. 

The Days of Our Godfathers. 

IV. The Pioneers of Jefferson's Villages. 

Jefferson's First White a Half-Breed. 

Jefferson, West Virginia. 

The Seat of Destiny. 

''Bloody Prairie Wolves." 

J. K. Clark, ''the Prairie Wolf." 

The Landlord of Wolf Point. 

Claimed by "furrows." 

Jefferson's First Methodist. 

Hotel "Extortion." 

Biggest Ward in the World. 

Wolves, Whisky and Politics. 

An Early Traged3^ 

9 



10 TOWNSHIP OF JEFFEESON 

V. The Villages of Jefferson Township. 

VI. Irving Park. 

Its Railroad Station. 
Changes of Name and Fashion. 
Dry Goods and ''Wets." 
Costly Mansions. 
Stensland's Career. 
Science and Religion. 

VII. Grayland. 

Old-time Prices. 

Time's Changes. 

The "John Gray" High School. 

A School ''Trusty" of 1845. 

Chicago's First School. 

The Green Tree Tavern. 

VIII. Transportation and Manufacturing. 

IX. The Story of Milwaukee Avenue. 
' ' Dinner-Pail Avenue. ' ' 
Indian Trails. 

"A Crooked "Wagon Track." 
A Bid for Trade. 
Impossible Roads. 
Dutchman's Point. 
Toll Gate Riots. 
"Snell's Pike." 

X. Many Nations. 

XI. L'Envoi. 

Homesteads, Villas and Bungalows, and Warm Facts. 



Illustrations. 

Map of Jefferson Township Frontispiece 

Skeleton of Mastodon page 12 

Pottowattamie Village page 15 

Carl Schurz High School page 18 

Plan of First Floor, High School page 19 

Indian Boundary "Marker" page 24 

Jefferson Town Hall page 28 

New Irving Park School page 32 

Indian Trees page 37 

Dickinson Tavern page 40 

^'Snell-pike" Gate page 44 

Tyburn Gat6 page 47 

Insectary or "Bug-House" page 50 

Myrtle Masonic Temple page 53 

Evening in the Forest page 56 



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The Township of Jefferson, Illinois, 
formerly Jefferson, 111. Co., Va. 



BEFORE MAN (AS WE KNOW HIM) WAS IN 
JEFFERSON. 



In the Pleistocene Period. 
When the earth was without form and void, Jefferson 
was indubitably in the thick of the hurly-burly, as later 
during other formative periods, gaseous, liquid, solid; but 
it was not until the pleistocene or quaternary formations, 
geologically speaking, that Jefferson began to assemble her- 
self. Doubtless her earlier history is concealed within her 
bowels, below a proven depth of fifteen or sixteen hundred 
feet ; but it is warm down there, and one 's pastor will sanc- 
tion a deferred visit or stay. 

The Mastodon. 

In this lower subdivision of the Quaternary Period, 
which includes the Era of Man, dense forests and swamps 
covered the site of Chicago and its environs, extending for 
twenty miles to the north. The mighty mastodon crashed 
and splashed through unfamiliar Jefferson then, and left 
his bones in proof, to be dug up later, fifteen feet below 
the disturbed surface in the northwestern part of the city. 

Under Gray Seas. 

After the mastodon submersion came, the lake covered 
all, leaving in its retirement a seventy-foot deposit of rock, 

13 



14 TOWNSHIP OF JEFFEBSON 

gravel and clay. Aeons after^o be exact, in the year 
1870, John Gray, the founder of Grayland, had a sharp 
attack of Artesian Wellitis, which then was prevalent. 
Among other local victims he dug, for $5,000, a 1,500-foot 
well with a 50-gallon flow. He and Wm. P. Gray also 
dug, first to a depth of 750 feet, subsequently to 1,676 
feet, with a flow of 200 gallons a minute, and at a total cost 
of $7,000. 

Long since the output has dwindled, the sides of the 
shafts have collapsed, their day is done; the flow being 
intermittent and ever lighter as the borings choke them- 
selves. Now, however, the purchaser of a building-lot may 
know, thanks to the Grays, a little about the composition of 
his investment, bounded as it is by the stars in one direc- 
tion and the earth's core or axis in the other. 

Geologic Strata. 

For here are the 70 feet, already mentioned, of sur- 
face soil, lake deposits, quaternary forest remains, and clay ; 
next are 250 feet of limestone with petroleum products, 
producing a picturesque effect when used for building 
stone, as in the old ''spotted church" once at "Wabash 
Avenue and Washington Street, and in some other public 
buildings and noted city residences. 

Next come 250 feet of conglomerate, shale and lime- 
stone ; afterward 325 feet of limestone, ferruginous, largely 
impregnated with iron, and then 150 feet of sandstone. 
Finally, the very hard, lower magnesian limestone. 

A Slough of Despond. 

After the lake had withdrawn to its present confines, 
Jefferson and its vicinity became an extensive marshy plain, 
overgrown v/ith tall grass and luxuriant swamp vegetation, 
with occasional clumps of trees marking the courses of the 



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16 TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 

s'luggish Chicago and Desplaines Rivers, which extended into 
or connected with numerous sloughs. 

The marshes and sand-banks annually w^ere swept by 
prairie fires or effaced by floods. In the spring overflows 
a waterway was open to the Desplaines River, and through 
the Illinois the Mississippi was reached. 

A Portage. 

A portage of unknown antiquity existed hereaway, mak- 
ing water communication at high flood between Niagara 
and the Gulf of Mexico. Earlier still Lake Michigan had 
discharged itself through the Sag Valley; ''Lake Chicago" 
being at that time, ages ago, at least thirty feet higher than 
now. 



II. WHEN THERE WILL BE NO MORE SEA. 

Speculatively, but surely, in thousands of years to come, 
the Illinois river rapids at Marseilles, which now check the 
outflow as do the rock masses of Niagara, will crumble and 
be washed away, leaving eventually Chicago as an inland 
city in relation to the ever-shallowing 600-feet present 
depths of Lake Michigan. 



TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 1? 

III. BEFORE CHICAGO WAS. 



In Indian Days. 

Chicago and its vicinity have been "a place of native 
resort and a rendezvous as far back as history goes; as 
later also for voyageurs and fur-traders." Certainly she 
has been known to white men for 250 or more years. Father 
Nicollet, approximately in 1634, records from personal ob- 
servation that there were sixty villages of Illinois Indians 
at that time (Erinouay, or Liniouek, he also calls them). 

French Explorers. 

Sieuer de la Salle was here, probably in 1671, and two 
years later came Joliet and Pere Marquette. The latter, 
writing in 1670, speaks of the Illinois as "assembled, chiefly 
in two towns, containing more than eight or nine thousand 
souls." And, respecting one of these towns, there is abund- 
ant justification and historic accuracy in locating it at what, 
to-day, is Irving Park Boulevard, immediately west of the 
crossing of Milwaukee Avenue; both old Indian trails, to 
be considered in their place. 

Pere Marquette. 

In 1673 Pere Marquette accomplished a canoe voyage 
of 2,500 miles, and, during that journey, while traveling 
from ''Stinking Bay" toward the mouth of the Chicago 
creek, he appears, judging from his own narrative, to have 
debarked at Lake Bluff, and sent trusty men to spy the 
adjacent country, the great prairie, covered with oak and 
scrub "openings," which extended, then as now, from "Wau- 
kegan to Blue Island. 




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20 TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 

Irving Park an Indian Village. 

In this purview the Father necessarily included Jeffer- 
son township that was to be; and the Illinois, resident in 
their extensive and ancient village (whose name, if ever it 
had an English equivalent, is lost to us), on that balmy 
spring morning of 1673, were keen to learn the purpose of 
this visit from the seldom seen and much-discussed pale- 
face with the silvery tongue and the golden cross, a per- 
petual candidate for the ''happy hunting grounds." 

Later, while Marquette's trappers sought game in the 
north tovv^i w^oods and along the "Chicagoux" river — bear, 
deer, pigeons, grouse, duck and prairie-chickens were then 
abundant— the holy father himself visited the Indian vil- 
lage at the fork of the Indian trails. There he celebrated 
masses and performed numerous baptisms in the neighbor- 
ing creeks, being the first religious celebrant of Christian 
rites in the pagan wilds of Irving Park. 

The Miamis. 

The Miami confederacy, after the extermination of 
Marquette's redskin friends and their families at Starved 
Rock, were succeeded by the Pottowattamies of the great 
Algonquin family, who are more intimately connected with 
the traditional and historic features of early Chicago ; which 
town also awaited a godfather. 

The Days of Our Godfathers. 

In 1G84 the Chekagua river was known also as the 
Cheacoumeinan. Old French maps of 1696 call the Missis- 
sippi the Chacaqua or Divine river, and identity is found 
with the Checaqua of the powerful Tamaroas. 

Fort Chicagou is so marked on a Quebec map of 1688, 
while in a Parisian manuscript of 1726 the name given to 
the French outpost is Chicagoux. 



TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 21 

IV. THE PIONEERS OF JEFFERSON'S VILLAGES. 



Jefferson's First White a Half -Breed. 

Colonel De Peyster, British commander at Michilimac- 
inac, records, under date of July 4, 1779, ''an Eschikago 
cabin of Jean Baptiste Point de Sable," Chicago's first re- 
corded settler being a colored man, as Jefferson's first 
'* white" will be shown to have been a half-breed. 



Jefferson, West Virginia. 

In 1774 Jefferson township was part of West Virginia. 
Four years later the whole of the Northwestern Territories, 
including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and parts of Wisconsin 
and Michigan, were known as the County of Illinois in the 
State of Virginia; while the treaty of Greenville, Ohio, in 
1795, formally ceded to the United States the Chicago river 
and vicinity as a specific tract, together with other immense 
territories. 



''The Seat of Destiny." 

The inflation period of 1835-6-7 brought Chicago well 
to the front as the Seat of Destiny, and the little town 
(not yet a city) of 3,265 people, became a speculative center 
and distributing point for immigrants from the east. In 
this year of grace, 1911, history repents itself. Chicago is 
now sending its surplus population to irrigated and "dry- 
farmed" sections of the one-time Great American Desert, 
and to Saskatchewan; as, in the early thirties, the people 
of the Western Reserve, of Vermont and farther afield, were 
urged to "try their luck" in Chicago and its coming suburbs, 
notably in Jefferson township. 



22 TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 

''Bloody Prairie Wolves." 

To assist ill the conception of that time it is well to 
quote from a letter written by the scenic artist, Harry Isher- 
wood, to his and this writer's mutual friend, Mr. J. 11. Mc- 
Vicker. He tells of an unruly young Irishman, discharged 
from our first peripatetic theatrical troupe, performing at 
the Sauganash hotel in Chicago, and exclaiming, "Dis- 
charged is it? Where be I to go, with Lake Michigan roar- 
ing on one side, and the bloody prairie wolves on the other !" 

J. K. Clark, ''the Prairie Wolf." 

John Kinzie Clark, generally known as "Indian" Clark, 
in 1825 had paid taxes of $2.50 on Cook County's first per- 
sonal assessment roll; and, possibly from dislike of that ex- 
perience, left Chicago in 1830 with a few personal effects 
behind a pair of mustangs, to "squat" in Jefferson; where 
he "raised" a two-room log shanty with a "shake" roof. 
His Indian neighbors called him Nonimoa, or "the Prairie 
Wolf." His mother, Elizabeth, had been for twelve years 
a prisoner among the Shawnees in Virginia, and was after- 
ward known in Chicago as Mrs. Clybourn, dying but a few 
years ago. 

The Landlord of Wolf Point. 

Soon after Nonimoa 's arrival came Elijah Wentworth, 
who had been landlord of the Wolf Point Hotel until Janu- 
ary, 1830. He moved to a claim eight miles northwest of 
town, building a large log tavern on the spot where the 
Jefferson station of the C. & N. W. Railway now stands. 
During the Blackhawk war, in 1832, he was driven to refuge 
temporarily in Fort Dearborn, afterward opening a hotel 
on Sand Ridge. This ridge, 24 feet above datum, like the 
33 feet rise of neighboring Union Ridge, both invited early 
settlers. 



TOWNSHIP OF JEFFEESON 23 

Claimed by "Furrows." 

The original government survey of 1831 was admittedly 
full of errors, necessitating an authentic survey in 1837, 
under which sales of land first were made in Jefferson in 
1838. Lands previously had been held by ''right of posses- 
sion" or squatter-sovereignty, by "the mailed fist" or shot- 
gun. The Canadian, D. S. Dunning, whose name remains 
to us in the County Buildings and settlement at Dunning, 
bounded his original claim by a furrow. This was a cus- 
tom held sacred by the early settlers, and useful also in 
fighting prairie fires. Many will remember his son, Russell 
0. Dunning, born in 1848. 

Jefferson's First Methodist. 

Next came the Nobles, the Bickerdikes, the Lovetts (near 
Whisky Point), and others. Mr. Everett, arriving in 1838, 
often made his one-room log-cabin serve for the whole fam- 
ily, and for as many as thirty strangers at a time beside. 
In his home an itinerant Methodist first held Protestant re- 
ligious services in the township. Soon came the demands 
of fashion, and Abram Gale paid 75 big dollars for Jeffer- 
son's first frame-house, 18 by 34 feet. 

Hotel "Extortion" in the Thirties. 

The county authorities now felt compelled to check ra- 
pacity, and adopted the following obligatory tariff for hotel 
charges : 

Breakfast or supper .25 cents. 

Dinner 371/0 

Horse feed 25 

Horse keep, all night 50 

Lodging for a man 121/^ 

Half-pint brandy 25 

Half -pint whisky 121/2 




This historic Indian Tree or '^ marker" grows upon ''the Eidge, " 
on the grounds of the Kidge Moor Golf Club; the curious configuration 
of the trunk is now partially hidden by a bunker. It is upon the 
Indian Boundary Line created by the Prairie du Chien treaty between 
the United States, and the Chippeway, Ottawa and Pottowattamie 
nations. It points toward the ''Big Water,-' Lake Michigan. Atmos- 
phere and virility are well expressed by the artist, Mr. Geo. E. Colby. 



TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 25 

Biggest Ward in the World. 

Such were the beginnings of Jefferson township, orig- 
inally equal to a congressional township in area, but much 
diminished by the organization of Norwood Park in 1873. 
For consolation she can still lay claim to possession of the 
''biggest" ward in the world, the 27th ward of Chicago. 

Wolves, Whisky and Politics. 

Little of incident or of romance worthy of repetition 
disturbed the phlegm of the early settlers. Andy Jackson 
they knew was President — that was enough politically for 
them — and be it known they became aware of changes since. 
The election of Thomas Jefferson as godfather followed as 
a matter of course. 

Once a gray timber wolf, threatened by a timorous 
pitchfork, chased its owner to coA^er in his own barn. Again^ 
a *' soaked" settler was found dead in a ditch, an empty 
whisky-jug beside him. Local chronicles, still extant, pre- 
serve the names of both worthies, but why further perpetu- 
ate them ! The after life and fate of the heroic wolf, the 
brand of such convincing whisky, alas, are both forgotten. 

An Early Tragedy. 

Still, in the dim recesses of the sweet north woods lurk 
grim traditions of the noble savage. One such concerns a 
half-breed, ''half dust, half deity," who sought to rear 
a dusky race with scant regard for the laws of hospitality 
or of the wigwams of his Pottowattamie neighbors. 

It tells of a midnight council-fire under historic elms, 
a file of silent warriors whose eagle feathers glinted through 
sombre boughs; of a cabin surrounded, a hopeless scowling 
captive, and of retribution swift and terrible unheeding 
screams for mercy. 



26 TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 

And after — of a mutilated creature left to brood in 
the shades of bitter memory and unavailing regret. Human 
nature is the same under red skins or white, and whether 
the time be the early years of the nineteenth or of the 
twentieth century. 



V. THE VILLAGES OF JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP. 



Of Jefferson toAvnship's constituent villages and early 
settlements, situate on the Wisconsin division of the C. & 
N. W. Railway and on the C, M. & St. P. R. R., it is worthy 
of note that 

Albany Park within three years has spread from Kim- 
ball to Sacramento, from Montrose to Lawrence Avenues, 
while the plat of 

Avondale was approved in December, 1873. 

Ban dew's postoffice formerly was at 1594 Milwaukee 
Ave. 

Bowmanville, with its adjacent Roe's Hill (whence the 
Rosehill Cemetery takes its name), has earlier history, if 
not wholly creditable. In 1850 Bowman bought a consider- 
able tract and parceled it out. He left the country before 
his title was proven defective and worthless, thus compelling 
many an unfortunate wight to pay tAvice for his holding. 
Its first store was built in 1868. 

Peher S. Peterson of Bowmanville, one of the world's 
workers from his eleventh year, had varied experience in 
Sweden, Germany, Belgium, Canada and California before 
founding one of the greatest known Nurseries in 1856 in 
Jefferson. He w^as a co-trustee of this township in 1879 ; 
and in later j^ears gave liberally toward the Lincoln Park 
statue of Linnaeus, creating a permanent Arts and Crafts 



TOWNSHIP 01' JEFFERSON 27 

exhibit in Stockholm, and an asylum for the feebleminded 
in his native land. He Avas honored by his King, and his 
death in 1903 was widely regretted. 

His stalwart son, "William A. Peterson, has acreage 
holdings exceeding those of anyone else in Cook county, 
maintaining much native forest for ultimate inclusion in 
Chicago's outerpark belt. At his home is an unsurpassed 
collection of relics gathered from the Pottowattamie village- 
sites and trails of this portion of Jefferson, supplemented 
by Swiss lake-dwellers' implements, monastic manuscripts, 
early examples of the printer's art,' and other rare memen- 
toes of world-Avide travel. 

Lyman A. Budlong lived 1829-1909, and settled in Jef- 
ferson in 1857. He was a trustee of Jefferson village, and 
a school director until the merger with Chicago. His 
grandfather and great-grandfather were drummer-boy and 
private in the Continental army; while during King Phil- 
ip's War, the family, of French Huguenot stock and for 
seven generations in Rhode Island, was wiped out by an In- 
dian massacre, except for a four-year-old boy, John. 

Cragin was named after the old-time hardware house 
of Cragin Brothers, at 230 Lake Street, in 1866. 

Dunning", already referred to, was unique in creating 
its own railroad line (a branch of the C. JM. & St. P. R. R.), 
for the carriage of materials to the county buildings, which 
since has been instrumental in the flotation of a number of 
factories along its right-of-way. 

Elsmere, once notable for a giant elm, on North avenue 
west of Milwaukee avenue, where Pottowattamie council 
fires burned for generations. 

Forest Glen, and 

Galewood, Avilh its first railroad station in 1872, call for 
no mention of special significance — each has prospered. 

Grayland receives more extended mention elsewhere. 




The old Town Hall, on land donated by Sheriff John Gray, was the 
pioneer township High School in Illinois, organized in 1869, and at- 
tended by the Budlongs, Dickinsons, Dunnings, Mercereaus, Kaces, 
Wheelers, and others of the early settlers' families. Some of the 
police officers identified with its present use as the 36th Precinct 
Police Station were on the old Jefferson Police Force before annexa- 
tion to the city. 



TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 29 

Humboldt Park's original eighty acres sold in 1870 for 
$2,500 an acre, as Henry Greenebaum, "the father of Hum- 
boldt Park," could testify. 

Irving Park, with its later extensions of East and "West 
Irving Park, and near the center of the township, is on the 
original Major Noble farm, which was bought by Charles 
T. Race in 1869, and the Park will receive detailed considera- 
tion. Originally it was known as Irvington. 

Jefferson village was laid out and recorded by D. L. 
Roberts in 1855. 

Maplewood, situate in the S. E. corner of the township, 
developed from the pre-empted claim of George Adams. He 
speedily sold eighty acres at a price which enabled him to 
clear the remaining eighty. Hoffman built Maplewood 's first 
house at Humboldt Boulevard and Hoffman Avenue in 1870 ; 
Daniel Reynolds the second, one year later, on Maplewood 
Avenue, cor. Congress. 

Mont Clare was originally Say re Station, while the 
nucleus of 

Montrose, now Mayfair, was an 80-acre purchase in 
1864 for $800. 

Pennock was named after Homer Pennock, an owner of 
much property thereabouts, including 1,200 acres in Cald- 
Avell's Reserve. 

Ravenswood Manor lies directly east of Albany Park, 
while 

Wicker Park has an interesting, but familiar story, 
hardly within the province of the historian of Jefferson. 

It is worthy of note that the bones of a mastodon, else- 
where referred to, were found at the south side of Wicker 
Park near Milwaukee Avenue, about 1^4 mill's east of Hum- 
boldt Park, in the summer of 1885. 

These bones, including part of a jaw, teeth and frag- 
ments of a few^ other bones, were found beneath 13 to 15 



30 TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 

feet of silt, according to the United States Geological Sur- 
vey (Chicago folio), Illinois and- Indiana, No. 81. 

They were placed in the custody of the Chicago Acad- 
emy of Sciences, the curator. Professor Frank C. Baker, in- 
forms the writer. Higley and Raddin, Bull. Chi. Acad. Sci., 
Vol. II, No. 1, 189.1. p. 15, contains similar mention. 

"Whisky Point," near Cragin, provokes constant en- 
quiry as to the origin of the name. Some ribald wags ex- 
plain that tlie first quarterly Methodist meeting in Jefferson 
township Avas held there. Others blame Deacon Lovett for 
retailing at "Uvo cents per thin-bottomed tumbler" a barrel 
of genuine copper-distilled whisky; while two worthies of 
the early times who drained their wives' "whisky pickles," 
with peculiar results to themselves and the pickles, are also 
held accountable. 



VI. IRVING PARK. 



Irving Park's Railroad Station. 

There was a heavy exodus Jefferson way after the great 
Chicago fire of 1871, which induced Chas. T. Race to re- 
consider his original intention of farming the Noble home- 
stead, dickered for by him in 1869. So he, with others, pro- 
posed to start a town named after Washington Irving. 

The railroad agreed to stop trains at the proposed vil- 
lage of Irving Park on condition that the promoters should 
assure the expense of building the depot, and so the matter 
was arranged. The first store had already been built in 

1870. 

Changes of Name and Fashion. 

The south side of Irving Park Boulevard was at first 
more in favor, and eventually an ingenious plan was devised 
to diminish what once were magnificent distances by alter- 



TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 31 

nating avenues and courts, each pair carrying a single desig- 
natory number. Precedingly, various street names had al- 
ready been em.ployed, old-time residents recalling a distinct 
literary savor when Washington Irving shared with Ruskin, 
Whittier and others this evidence of popularity, helped by 
the large professional and quasi-professional entourage of 
the park. 

Various Such Changes Were 

N. 40th, once Crawford Avenue. 

N. 41st Avenue was Greenwood Avenue, and N. 41st 
Court formerly St. Charles Avenue. 

N. 42nd Avenue, Whittier Street and Irving Avenue. 

N. 42nd Court, at one time Ruskin Street and previously 
Selwyn Avenue. 

N. 43rd, Park Avenue. 

Lowell Avenue originally was Washington Avenue, with 
W. Addison then Warner Avenue, and W. Waveland Avenue 
Bond Street, while W. Grace Avas known as Everett — to 
quote only a few of the changes noted by the city and county 
map departments. 

W. J. Moore, now of W. J. & C. B. Moore and also of 
the American Bond & Mortgage Company, was in earlier 
years actively identified with that prince of subdivisions and 
"merchant of Corneville," S. E. Gross, to Avhom Chicago 
must acknowledge herself deeply indebted. 

Their joint operations in Jefferson alone aggregated 
over 2,000 lots and several hundred homes, including a sub- 
division of 40 acres in 1887, southwest of California and 
Belmont Avenues; 50 acres next year northwest of Elston 
Aver.ae and Belmont ; in 1889, 20 acres southeast of Central 
Park Avenue and Belmont. In 1900, 50 acres extending 
from Milwaukee Avenue to Addison Avenue, between N. 
46th and N, 4Sth Avenues, and 3 years later 50 acres more 
between Hamlin Avenue and 40th, Irving Park Boulevard 



TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 33 

and Addison Avenue ; witli other operations near Armitage 
Avenue. 

Dry Goods Men. 

Mr. J. M. Fleming, a superintendent for Field, Leiter 
& Co. (retail), came to Irving Park, and induced a heavy 
hegira of possibly 135 fellow-employes, who may reasonably 
be given some credit in fighting the ''wets," and landing this 
suburb in the prohibition column. 

Costly Mansions. 

Race erected a home in the Italian villa style then pre- 
valent, at a cost with its grounds of $20,000; John Gray 
spent a similar amount in neighboring Grayland on a two- 
story and mansard red-brick, now fallen upon evil days; 
and Paul 0. Stensland (Paul Olsen of Stensland, as his 
Norwegian neighbors rightfully called him) spent much 
more on a great frame building with colonial portico, for a 
time the showplace of its vicinity, possessing much luxury 
of interior finish and many objects of art. 

Stensland 's Career. 

This latter worthy, before a brief voluntary sojourn in 
northern Africa, and a longer enforced stay at the public 
expense in Joliet, found, as did many another real estate 
man of his time, that cemetery lots were good collateral. 
For Mount Olive, created by him, time and again saved him 
from certain disaster, consequent on other less sound and 
speculative investments. 

Many a top-dressing of rich black loam, fifteen inches 
thick, has been scraped off by other ''swamped" realty men 
to pay matured interest on insistent mortgages, when ceme- 
tery stocks may not have been available. 

Science and Religion. 

The prairie vistas bristle V\'ith church spires and more 
modern substitutes, equally "heaven-directed," whether 
religious, lay or institutional. 



34 TOWNSHIP OF JEFFEKSON 

Education — worldly and speculative, either coming or 
p'oing — is offered in abundant measure throughout Jeffer- 
son — to attempt detail would take undue space. 

Applied and beneficent science has wide representation. 
A recent example is the establishment in Irving Park of an 
insectary or "bughouse," a branch field-house of the State 
Entomologist's offices on the campus at Urbana. 

Here Professor J. J. Davis welcomes Musca domestica 
(the common house-fly) with hospitable hands to a bloody 
grave ; also his sworn foes, the aphididae, together with all 
other insect pests of the farmer, truck-gardener and florist. 

Here, also, the most important discovery in a knowl- 
edge of soils in recent years, the microscopic organism 
which occasions loss of fertility, is checked in its develop- 
ment, among other marvels of microbic civil war. 

This modest little office, laboratory and conservatory 
are a centre for fruitful pilgrimages, and give promise as 
the nucleus of a botanical garden. The location is ideal for 
practical talks to Farmers' Institutes, while Lincoln Park 
and the Institutions at Dunning offer exceptional opportun- 
ities for extended research, akin to the work at Rotham- 
sted's experimental station in England. 



VII. GRAYLAND. 



Irving Park's nearest neighbor, touching elbows, whose 
fortunes are linked with her own, is Grayland, in which re- 
cent developments on a large scale promise abundantly to 
reward the "bump on a log" wise enough to wait — and to 
keep "paid up." 

Originally this was the extensive farm of John Gray, 
iiaving been created a subdivision in the spring of 1873. 



TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 35 

After his costly experiment in artesian well-digging, already 
related, acre property that had sold in 1886 at $100 an 
acre changed hands within three years at $700, and in 1891 
$20 a foot was refused for the same property. 

Old-Time Prices. 

Then w^as exhibited the peculiar condition, illustrated 
again and again in realty values in Jefferson township, as 
in other favored localities, that the average cost of an acre, 
in 1869 and again in 1875 for example, was gotten back, six 
times over, in the value of every 50 by 150 foot lot a few 
years later. And the end is not yet. 

The twentieth century discloses equal opportunity, pres- 
ent and to come, to the astute and discriminating, and, often, 
even to the ' ' blind ' ' buyer. Another instance may be quoted 
in Grayland, susceptible of duplication in many other por- 
tions of the township of Jefferson. 

The first year of its life as a subdivision choice lots were 
sold at $10 per foot; Chester Dickinson, years ago, bought 
this northwest quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 
15 for $100 an acre, selling out in a few years at $4,000 to 
$5,000 an acre ; while the MS. of these reminiscences is pre- 
pared at a library-table overlooking a three-quarter-million 
dollar building where, less than two years ago, corn-tassels 
waved and 'tater-bugs flourished. 

Time's Changes. 

The original frame homestead of Sheriff John Gray on 
Milwaukee Avenue was torn down less than a year ago, and 
with it went a familiar landmark, the old windmill. Its 
sails never had revolved since Richard Mates, a hardy oc- 
togenarian from Wicklow (still full of vigor and useful- 
ness) had transported it from the vicinity of the Haymar- 
ket and the vanished shot-tower; but its end was peace- 
pieces of firewood. 



36 TOWNSHIP OF JEFFEESON 



This marker, or Indian Tree, a dead White Oak, still stands on 
Waveland Avenue near the lake shore, apparently indicating to voy- 
ageiirs the direction of the great Indian village at Irving Park, which 
extended northeasterly through Forest Glen and Bowmanville. 

Other of these picturesque trees are found at Highland Park and 
Lake Bluff. Authorities differ as to the purpose and origin of these 
ancient crippled white-oak and white-ash trees. The reduced exam- 
ples are from the woods west of the new Naval Station. 



38 TOWNSHIP or JEFFERSON 

The "John Gray" High School. 

A recent praiseworthy effort, not wholly abandoned, to 
commemorate a local worthy by renaming the nearly-com- 
pleted Carl Schurz High School of monumental dignity and 
spaciousness, has much to be said in its favor, even by ad- 
mirers of the Missouri governor, statesman, orator and dash: 
ing cavalry-leader, General Schurz. At Gettysburg and 
Chattanooga he retrieved Bull Run and Chancellorsvillc. 
From his student insurrectionary days at Bonn in 1849 to 
bis masterly support of Abraham Lincoln's candidacy his 
life was inspiring, but remote in many essentials from local 
interests, as also was his representation of the United States 
in Spain or the conspicuous mark he made in metropolitan 
newspaperdom. 

A School ''Trusty" in 1845. 

On the other hand, Mr. Gray had been a school trustee 
of Jefferson village in 1869; and nearly a quarter-century 
earlier, in March, 1845, he was on the first Board of School 
Inspectors in Chicago. At the latter date the only school 
building belonging to Chicago was in the First Ward, so 
old, small and dilapidated that it was sold (''no great bar- 
gain to the purchaser," says a grim old chronicler) for $40. 

Thanks to Mr. Gray the city became possessed of a 
building, opposite McVicker's Theater, costing $7,523.42, 
and immediately dubbed Miltimore or Gray's "Folly," be- 
cause of its unwarranted extravagance, "beyond all possi- 
bility of corresponding growth in the city itself." 

Chicago's First School. 

Its opponents insisted that this two-story brick was an 
absurd waste of money, "as the need could have been amply 
supplied by a one hundred-dollar frame building." John 
Gray thereby lost his position on the Board of Education. 
The site of Chicago's first municipally-owned school build- 



TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 39 

mg was successively occupied by Hershey Music Hall, Rev. 
L. P. Mercer's congregation, by Sam T. Jack's peculiar 
Opera House and the Chicago Inter-Ocean, and is now 
absorbed by a large department store. 

The Green Tree Tavern. 

- Previously John Gray had, from 1838 to 1841, been 
landlord of the old and historic Green Tree Tavern, during 
his tenancy known as the Chicago Hatel ; it was then in its 
original location at the N. E. corner of Canal and Lake 
streets. 

Gray was a man of unusual insight, energy, and re- 
sourcefulness for those early days, and it is curious that 
this skirmish for the christening of a great educational 
establishment, created upon John Gray's own homestead, 
should be waged between his shade, himself a martyr and 
enthusiast in the cause of education, and a German-Amer- 
ican, without specific local association, whose sponsor hap- 
pens to be of similar origin. ''Bull's Run" might well be 
the rallying cry of the one faction, "A Good Gray Head" the 
other's; and may the best man win. 

Another faction seeks to maintain the old name, the 
Jefferson High School, arguing that the change in location 
and new building do not justify another baptism. 

William P. Gray's name has recently been given to a 
new common-school building to be erected within the 
boundaries of his old homestead. 



VIII. TRANSPORTATION AND MANUFACTURING. 



Mention of the Green Tree Tavern, recently demolished, 
which stood at the southern terminal of Milwaukee Avenue 
for many years, leads naturally to a consideration of the 



TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 41 

means of communication, past and present, between the city 
and the important group of suburbs now treated of. 

Railroads "As Is" Railroads. 

Railroad facilities became speedily of prime importance ; 
that which made Chicago what she is as surely operated to 
the advantage of Jefferson tow^nship. Chicago's first sub- 
urban line is supposed by many to have been opened to 
Hyde Park in 1857 ; but the Chicago & Mihvaukee R. R. Co. 
began operating to Barrington January 1, 1855, and by 
]\Iarch first of that year was extended to Cary, 38 miles. 

Present facilities are afforded by its successors, the 
Chicago & Northwestern Railway and the Chicago, Milwau- 
kee & St. Paul road, and by elevated, trolley and surface 
lines, completed and projected — not forgetting ultimate 
water-transportation along the Chicago River, and in a 
nook of the Desplaines River, should our junior senator be- 
come interested in a Congressional appropriation looking 
toward a resumption of navigation. 

Of particular interest to Jefferson commuters is the 
stately terminal station of the Chicago & Northwestern Rail- 
way now approaching completion, when its discarded ter- 
minus probably will be used by the C, M. & St. P. R. R. No 
one of the city's five Union stations approaches it in cost or 
magnitude. 285 feet it towers from bedrock to cupolas, 
while its 16 tracks are covered by train-sheds but twenty 
feet high, planned to exclude all smoke and steam. At 
Randolph, Washington, Canal and Clinton streets, suburb- 
anites will be able to arrive and depart without passing 
through the main stations. Buildings housing 4,000 people 
disappeared to make room for this depot with facilities for 
250,000 passengers daily. 

From its first locomotive, the Pioneer (noAV in the Fi 4(1 
Museum), run upon the ten-mile track of the Galena & Chi- 
cago Union in 1818, to the 9,600 miles of trackage today, is 



42 TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 

material indication of development, which ensures increas- 
ing facilities as needed for Jefferson's requirements and in- 
cidentally those of people a few thousand miles farther 
away. 



GREAT PLANTS. 



A wizard's domain hidden by smoking stacks covers 
more than seven Jefferson acres on Elston Avenue, hidden 
behind the severe arches of the Geo. W. Jackson, inc., plant. 
Here originated a mile-long tunnel through remote Pike's 
Peak, an aqueduct for Rip's beloved Catskills. 

Under the ten-and-a-half feet of Chicago fire debris that 
raised and filled our downtown streets are tunnels miles 
long, great bulkheads, metal-sheet pilings, mighty con- 
crete foundation-piers; above are railroad and bascule- 
bridges, aerial tramAvays of mammoth proportions and su- 
perb engineering skill — all generated in or duplicated from 
these great works. 

To toss an elevated railroad eight or ten feet in the air, 
with undisturbed traffic and in record time, is a matter of 
course, more than once duplicated of late, in this enchanted 
realm. 

Another great interest in the same neighborhood, the 
Commonwealth Edison Company, has recently acquired the 
100 acre Biekerdike tract, has taken out a permit for a 
$750,000 power-house of 180,000 horse-power, and has flung 
a half-mile switch-track to the Northwestern R. R. ; but it 
declines all information respecting the speedy investment 
in the plant of many, perhaps 15 to 20 millions of dollars, 
which competent authorities believe to be probable. 

]\[aritime Jefferson is represented by an extensive five- 
acre plant at the river and Irving Park Boulevard, with 
direct facilities for inland navigation and coast travel. Thir- 



r 



TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 43 

ty-five boats, fin-keeled, centre-board, cruisers and high-speed 
motors, ranging up to 70 feet over all and a cost of $35,000, 
were launched from these yards last season. 

The Catherine, the Weckler Boat Company's demon- 
strator, operating from the Chicago and Columbia Yacht 
Club-houses, speeds 27 miles an hour; and is named after 
Mrs. A. J. Weckler, a daughter of ]\Iichel Diversy, a French 
emigre, whose brewery chimneys stood until the great fire 
where are now the Chicago Avenue waterworks. One of 
our great thorouglifares, Diversy Boulevard, is named after 
him, Mr. Adam F. AYeckler studied the sharp lines of 
piratical proas in the PliiHppines Avhile serving Uncle Sam. 



IX. THE STORY OF MILWAUKEE AVENUE. 



Dinner-Pail Avenue. 

It would be manifestly unfair to omit extended mention 
of that pioneer thoroughfare of Chicago, Milwaukee Ave- 
nue, once Jefferson's sole and uncertain dependence, and 
still her leading highway. 

Another of Chicago's great diagonal thoroughfares, the 
"Archie Road," has become internationally known, owing 
to the efforts of a devoted scribe ; yet Milwaukee Avenue 
easily may take precedence, once its story is told. 

The Epic of the Northwestern Plank Road, "Dinner- 
Pail Avenue," the Rue de Mecklenburg (as it is or has been 
variously known), remains "to wake to ecstasy the living 
lyre.'' To that end these field-notes are worthy of preserva- 
tion. 

Indian Trails. 

The old Indian trail, laboriously thumbed out at an 
early day, and consulted in the archives of the Chicago 
Historical Society, is shown as running nortliwest from Chi- 




O 



TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 45 

cago; its commencement, in early Chicago days, being on 
the line of Elston Avenue through two-thirds the length of 
that highway — not along lower Milwaukee Avenue as map- 
ped to-day. 

It began near the old Galena depot on the north side ; 
which, later, was used as a milk-depot, and whose recent 
passing facilitates work upon the mammoth $25,000,000 
terminals of the C. & N. W. Ry. 

At Irving Park Boulevard, another legendary yet au- 
thenticated Indian trail, the old trails formed the principal 
thoroughfares, the State Street and Madison Street of the 
permanent settlement of Indian wigwams, a flourishing vil- 
lage there situate ; since there was a portage (as has been 
noted) and at spring flood w^ater-communication existed be- 
tween the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. 

A Crooked Wagon-track. 

In the boom-days of 1835-7 the trail had become a mean- 
dering group of parallel ruts leading from Kinzie Street, 
through Jefferson, Niles and Northfield, toward Deerfield. 

''Every settler suited himself in the course he drove 
over the prairie to avoid swamp, slough, hole or rut, so that 
half-a-dozen or more tracks often ran side by side." 

''When roads are good they are very good indeed,'' 
was the burden of a petition for establishing and surveying 
a road, which led to ditches being dug; to make the road 
straighter, for drainage, and to direct travel between the 
furrows. 

A Bid for Trade. 

A shorter cut for down-town communication was pro- 
jected, and the landlord of the Green Tree Tavern, near 
its new terminal, having an eye for business, offered copious 
free potations to the surveyors who kept their eyes and lines 
snugly pointed toward his hospitable chimney-pots. 



46 TOWNSHIP OF JEFFEESON 

Impossible Roads. 

"The time required when roads were good," says a 
chronicler of that day, ''to get to the old flat-iron building," 
the postoffice, at Market, Lake and South "Water streets, 
''from Northfield and back, was four days; when muddy, 
nearly double that time was required; and, in the spring, 
during several months, the road was hopeless quagmire, and 
impassable." 

Glance at to-day's time-card, and contrast results — if 
any there be still disgruntled. 

Dutchman's Point. 

The Northwestern Plank Road, virtually a corduroy 
road in many places, was constructed in 1849-50 to "Wheel- 
ing, a branch running out to the Desplaines River, and the 
main line extending to Dutchman's Point — a total of eight- 
een miles. By 1854 the town of Maine was compassed. 

Toll Gates. 

As late as 1889 toll or turnpike-gates straddled Milwau- 
kee Avenue, at Fullerton, Belmont and Jefferson Park. 
There was no way legally to remove them, so the "embat- 
tled farmers," as at Concord, disguised as Indians and oth- 
erwise, rose in their might and resolutely destroyed them, 
knowing that the Maj^or Avould withhold necessary consent 
to reconstruct the gates. 

Mr. William Landshaft of 2338 Milwaukee Avenue, 
loaned the rare photo gTaph of the Milwaukee and Fuller- 
ton Avenue gate taken the morning after the destruction 
of the gate by fire, which is reproduced herein. He, County 
Clerk Joseph F. Haas, Wm. H. Robinson, who gave his life 
for the cause, and sundry other gentlemen who were "In- 
dians" then, have contributed to this recital, while Wil- 
liam Ringler, the old gate-keeper, still actively in business 



= s^li 


^li 


i^i ^'.^, 


■'■ 




l;)i 



T»lil*.jteiS;-5:=r: 



null 



48 TOWNSHIP OF JEFFEESON 

on Fullerton Avenue, is represented in the picture as re- 
fusing the preferred toll from passing farmers, since the 
stout hickory pole no longer blocked the roadway and the 
gate-house was a ruin. 

The more important toll-gates then were: — 
The Chicago Gate, referred to above, 
Jefferson Gate, near the village of that name, 
Jefferson Village Gate, 

Niles Gate, Milwaukee and Elston Avenues, 
Main Gate at Northfield, 
Wheeling Gate, at the Desplaines Eiver, 
Norwood Road Gate, and the Graceland Avenue Gate, 
Elston Avenue gates w^ere at Belmont Avenue and at 
Montrose Boulevard, according to an interesting article in 
the Chicago Daily News of Dec, 7, 1909, 

Mr, Ringler's recollections are readable: — 
''I was on the job for 14 years, and I guess I took in 
more money than any other gate-keeper. One Sunday, with 
several Polish and Bohemian picnics at Niles and Desplaines, 
and new cemeteries opening at Dunning, my receipts were 
$790. The average from all gates at that time was $400 a 
day. 

''One time the County Commissioners gave a big sleigh- 
ing party and I stuck the whole bunch. There was a dis- 
pute as to who should pay, and I was several dollars short. 
I ran after them and grabbed the hat of the president of 
the board, John M. Green. They went a little further, then 
came back with the money. Mayor De Witt C. Cregier, with 
several other city officials, once came through to inspect the 
Dunning asylum. I nailed 'em. They looked pretty sour, 
but paid the toll." 

''Sneirs Pike." 

Amos J. Snell's estate was the principal sufferer there- 
by, although the bulk of his fortune had been acquired in 



TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 49 

selling ''scrub" timber to the Northwestern railroad for 
locomotive fuel. Ilis principal supply-points were the banks 
of the Chicago Eiver and Hubbard's Woods; and, if rumor 
be true, the same loads served the company's needs time and 
again, now at one station then at another, with fresh vouch- 
ers and billing. 

This fortune, large for its day, cost Snell his life, in 
the murder-mystery, never fathomed, of 1888. His son's 
recent death in a north-side slum, and the diversified career 
of other members of his family, are still fresh in the public 
mind. 



X. MANY NATIONS. 



In conclusion, passing reference may be made to the 
curious polyglot phases of life presented by Milwaukee Ave- 
nue, with sensational head-lines, frequently indulged in by 
newsmongers, devoted by turns to certain sections of the 
thoroughfare, ventilating "slop-shops," "snide-auctions," 
"white slave" traffic, the vendetta, and many another 
idiosyncrasy of the reporter more often than of his sub- 
ject. 

What Soho is to London this diagonal avenue is to the 
Garden City. By turns the Greek, Italian, German, Scan- 
dinavian, Russian, Lithuanian and Pole monopolize the 
street signs, the corner news-stands, the sidewalks and the 
cars, or proclaim to the passing nose one aspect of their 
national delicacies. 

Every half-section line exhibits in its ganglia, at the 
crossing of the thoroughfares, a sharp-angled picturesque 
frontage, akin to Seven Dials or Five Points in their palmy 
days. 

Like the course of a river through its successive stages 
of mountains, valley and plain, the avenue gains grandeur. 



TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 51 

volume and a certain dignity in its progress; no atom of 
sand, no tiniest particle can be spared en voyage for that 
sea of houses, necessary to it as it to them. 

The grand tour — of Milwaukee Avenue — is a lesson in 
geography, a study in tongues (for one's own, though it be 
not English, here will serve an adult for a lifetime, if he 
so pleases) ; it is the literal munching of a veritable New 
York sandwich — crisp salad, dainty chicken, substantial 
Westphalian ham — all, and much more, are there, while 
Uncle Sam's Melting Pot seethes night and day. 



XI. L'ENVOI. 



Homesteads, Villas, Bungalows and Warm Facts. 

The smiling landscapes to which Milwaukee Avenue 
leads to-day are fertile and umbrageous, picturesque Avith 
snug bungalow or stately villa, bearing no semblance to the 
habitat of extinct monsters, the slimy bottom of the sea, the 
bottomless SAvamps, or the recent glacial epoch that followed 
in ordered sequence; so that man, to-day, may furnish his 
little finite needs out of the Infinite that permeates all — 
past, now and yet to come. 

What man has done, that may he do again. 

Present opportunity exists for energy, enterprise, judg- 
ment and fortuitous speculation — and never so much as now ! 

U. S. Census. 

It is matter of sincere regret, both to Mr. E. Dana Du- 
rand, Director of the Census, and to this compiler, that the 
printed bulletin showing the distribution of the population 
of Illinois in detail for counties and minor civil divisions, 
by the census of 1910, is not available in season for partial 
inclusion, as respects Jefferson, before going to press ; for 



52 TOWNSHIP OF JEFFEKSON 

it surely will exhibit phenomenal development in the last 
decade. 

School Census. 

In the absence of Federal figures, and uncertain as to 
the relative merits of recent political, church and realty enu- 
merations, the school census for May 2, 1910, offers reason- 
ably accurate data, since superintendent "W. L. Bodine, em- 
ploying 2 7-lOths as a multiple, as he informs this writer, 
came close to the governmental figures for the city of 2,185,- 
000. 

The 27tli Ward, on this authority, leads any other sec- 
tion in grooving population, heading the list with 8,888 ba- 
bies under four, and there is a noticeable trend of Americans, 
Germans, Poles and Scandinavians into this ward. There 
are but one Japanese minor, twice as many Chinese, and 
three Spaniards recorded. 

By above computation the comfortable total of 141,131 
population for the 27tli ward is reached; omitting Norwood 
Park, as not within Jefferson township, some 500 less would 
be recorded. 1908 showed 92,189, 1904 had 54,114. 

Of illiterate minors we have but 11, deaf 21, dumb 14, 
15 crippled and none blind, if parents were not too sensitive 
when giving information. 

Twenty years ago the school census gave the 27th Avard 
a total, adult and minor, of 11,368, of whom 102 were col- 
ored — now we are credited with but 16 negroes. It is w^ell 
to remember that there were wide variations in method and 
less precision then and now, with some differences of less im- 
portance in the extent of territory embraced by the ward. 

The schools, other than public, then enumerated were : 

Parochial, Montrose Boulevard, 

St. Viata, Milwaukee Avenue, 

Kindergarten, Douglas Avenue, and 

Hunting's Kindergarten, Hunting Avenue; Avith a total 
of 212 pupils. 




Mvrtle Masonic Temple, N. 42ncl Court, corner Irvmg Park Boule 
vard/ Corner-stone laid Oct. 15, 1910 (A. L. 5910). 

Plate supplied by the courtesy of Hatzfeld & Knox, architects. 



54 TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 

Post Office Data. 

In homely biography and warm recent history lies edu- 
cation. 

''If you are no good," said Mark Twain, ''go away from 
home. You will thus become a blessing to your friends by 
ceasing to be a nuisance to them ; if the people you go among 
suffer by the operation. But, if you are any good, stay at 
home and make your way by faithful diligence." 

In the cradle lies Opportunity, here and now. 

By the courtesy of Hon. D. A. Campbell, Postmaster of 
Chicago, the following most interesting data respecting the 
growth of population and development of the 27th Ward 
have been prepared and collated under his instructions ex- 
pressly for incorporation in this publication. There was 
strong temptation to separate the various items and assign 
to each its chronological and geographical place; to do so, 
however, would have mangled a forceful and most compre- 
hensive document, which is therefore reproduced verbatim. 

The first carrier station established in the old town of 
Jefferson was the Humboldt Park KStation at 1576 Milwau- 
kee Avenue, July 1, 1889, with nine carriers and four clerks. 
Station No. 35 was established in the spring of 1894 at 1168 
W. Byron Street with three carriers and one clerk, and on 
July 1, 1899, was changed to Irving Park Station and re- 
moved to 1159 Irving Park Boulevard. August 5, 1898, 
Jefferson Station was established at 4303 Milwaukee Avenue 
with four carriers and two clerks. 

On October 1, 1898, Norwood Park Station was estab- 
lished with two carriers and two clerks ; February 15, 1899. 
Dunning Station with one carrier and one clerk; July 1, 
1899, Cragin Station was established at 2984 Grand Avenue 
with four carriers and two clerks ; November 1, 1899, Wiu- 
nemac Avenue Station at Lincoln and Foster Avenues with 
one carrier and one clerk. This station has been attached to 
Ravenswood Station; August 31, 1900, Station ''G," for- 



TOWNSHIP OF JEFFERSON 55 

merly Humboldt Park Station, was discontinued, and in lieu 
thereof two stations were established, Logan Square Station 
at 1907 Milwaukee Avenue, and Wicker Park Station at 1259 
Milwaukee Avenue. 

The following tabulation shows the approximate num- 
ber of carriers delivering mail in the 27th Ward January 
1, 1900, and the number employed November 1, 1910, with 
the stations to which they are assigned: 

Station. Jan. 1, 1900. Nov. 1, 1910. 

Norwood Park 2 2 

Jefferson 4 8 

Irving Park 6 20 

Dunning 1 1 

Cragin 4 11 

"Q'' loy. 

AVinnemac 1 

Ravensw^ood 1 5 

Lakeview 1 2 

Logan Square 19 

Wicker Park 7 

Total 301/2 75 

The Montclare substation is under the jurisdiction of 
the Superintendent of Cragin Station. 

In addition to the carrier stations mentioned there are 
about seventeen substations located conveniently throughout 
the territory where money orders may be issued, letters reg- 
istered and postage stamps purchased. 

There are nine carrier stations whose territory is en- 
tirely or in part within the boundaries of the 27th Ward. 
The names of the stations, together with the area and 
population served, as sho^\^l by the records on file, for the 
year ending December 31, 1909, are shown in the list here- 
with : 




The tangled wildwood and pristine jungle of the upper reaches of 

the North Branch of the picturesque Chicago Eiver are accurately 

depicted in this spirited sketch by Mr. George E. Colby, '' Evening 
in the Forest." 



TOWNSHIP OF JEFFEBSON 57 

Area Population 

Station Sq. Miles Dec. 31, 1909 

Norwood Park .... 2.20 1,575 

Jefferson 7.33 10,908 

Irving Park 7.38 34,277 

Dunning 3.00 1,305 

*^Logan Square 1.85 42,645 

nVicker Park 50 13,750 

*Cragin 6.25 20,619 

*Lakeview 20 3,150 

*Ravenswood 3.60 41,625 

Total 32.31 169,854 

Station territory indicated by '''*" is not wholly within 
the boundaries of the 27th AYard. 

The Bureau of Statistics of the City of Chicago for 1908 
shoAved the 27th AYard with a population of 77,243. The 
report of the Bureau of June 30, 1909, shows this Ward 
w4th a population of 123,265, area 32 square miles, 20,480 
acres, indicating that the 27th is the largest ward in area 
and population of any in the city. The population figures 
in the tabulated list are from the records of the Superin- 
tendent of Delivery. The increase given by the Bureau for 
December 31, 1908, and June 30, 1909, compared with the 
postal statistics of December 31, 1909, is comprehensive 
proof of immense growth in this ward. 



SOME LEADING INTERESTS 

IDENTIFIED WITH 

CHICAGO'S 
GREAT NORTHWEST SIDE 



AMERICAN BOND & MORTGAGE CO. 

BLACKMAN & MURGATROYD. 

BITNGE, WM. H. CO. • 

CHICAGO & NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY CO. 

CHICAGO METAL WEATHER STRIP CO. 

CORLISS, COON & CO. 

HARTWIG, OTTO J. 

HINES, EDWARD, LUMBER CO. 

HUSAK, JOS. & CO. 

ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF MUSIC AND DRAMATIC ART. 

IRVING PARK SIGNAL, THE. 

JACKSON, GEO. W., Inc. 

JEFFERSONIAN, THE. 

KERFOOT, WM. D. & CO. 

KJELLANDER'S. 

KOESTER & ZANDER. 

MARTIN, GUS. G. 

MOORE, W. J. & C. B. 

NORTH-WEST NEWS, THE. 

NORTH-WEST REVIEW, THE. 

NORTH-WESTERN TRUST & SAVINGS BANK. 

PETERSON NURSERY. 

REGAN PRINTING HOUSE. 

ROTZOLL DENTISTS, THE. 

ROZYCKI, MARYAN S. 

SECURITY BANK OF CHICAGO. 

THOMPSON, CHARLES C. & CO. 

WATSON, OLIVER L. 

WECKLER BOAT COMPANY. 

WOOD, W. G. CO., THE. 

ZAHN, CHARLES A. CO., THE. 




MADISON STREET ENTRANCE 




Chicago Passenger Terminal 



The Portal of the West. The New Passenger Terminal of the 
Chicago & North Western Railway at Chicago is to be one of the finest 
monuments ever erected to the commercial life and spirit of the West. 
It is to be located between Canal and Clinton Streets, extending 
from the main entrance fronting on Madison Street over Washington 
and Randolph Streets to Lake Street. More than three hundred trains 
will arrive at and depart from this terminal every day, connecting 
Chicago with hundreds of western cities and towns. More than $20,003,003 is to be expended to 
provide a railway entrance to the city, through which passenger traffic to and from the territory 
that has made Chicago powerful and rich is to move in ceaseless activity. Work upon the new 
station is proceeding with all rapidity that skill and liberal expenditure can command. The new 
station will have a capacity for handling a quarter of million patrons daily. It is confidently 
asserted that its provisions for doing this expeditiously and with the greatest comfort will excel 
anything ever known to the traveling public. Special attention is given to provisions for the 
constantly increasing suburban travel which will use the new terminal. 
HIRAM R. McCULLOUGH A. C. JOHNSON C. A. CAIRNS 

Vice-President Passenger Traffic Manager Gen'l Pass'r and Ticket Agent 

Chicago & Northwestern Railway General Offices, 215 Jackson Boulevard 



Annual Capacity 



70,000 Tons 




STRUCTURAL STEEL for Bridges and Buildings of any Design 

The Arrangement, equipment and organization of our Bridge and Steel Department have been 
developed to make possible the delivery of structural steel at a minimum cost and in minimum 
time. We are prepared to design, fabricate and erect structural steel of every size, weight and 
character. No work is too small and none too large for us to handle, and we go anywhere for 
business. Send us your specifications for estimates. 

Write or telephone Contract Department, 754-756 Jackson Blvd., Chicago 
Bridge and Steel Plant located 2023-2069 Elston Ave. A personal inspection is invited. 

"^ ^ CHICAGO C^ NEW YORK 



.We Cover the Entire North- We»t Side with our Publications _ 

IRVING PARK SIGNAL 

A Weekly for the Extreme Northwest Chicago and Suburbs 



A Real N e wspaper 
An Ideal Advertising Medium 



Local Office : 4216 Irving Park Boulevard. Telephone Irving Park 462 
General Office : 2516 West North Avenue. Telephone Humboldt 1202 



NORTH-WEST NEWS 

Published every Friday in the interest of Northwest Chicago 



For the People, by the People and of the People of the 
Northwest Side 



A Real Home Paper 



NORTH-WEST REVIEW 

An Advertising Sheet distributed free every other week in 30,000 

North- West Side Homes 

WE REACH THE PEOPLE 

GUS. G. MARTIN 

PRINTER AND PUBLISHER 
2516 W. NORTH AVENUE 

TEL. HUMBOLDT 1202 
Best Equipped Printing Establishment on the North- West Side 



We make a Specialty of 

Jefferson Township Real Estate 

Acres — Lots — Houses 

Low Prices and Easy Terms. Money to Loan at 
Current Rates 

First Mortgages For Sale 

We maintain 7 Branch Offices in Jefferson Township 



KOESTER& Zander 

69 DEARBORN ST ,&SS,li^\r. 



COMPOSITIONS 

By 

MARY AN S. ROZYCKI 

1 Primary School of Technique 
for Piano. 
, 2 Additional Exercises for the 
Study of Harmony. 

Melody No. 2, Opus 105 

Cradle Song, Opus 100 

Gipsy Love Song, Opus 107, No. 2 

Etude, Opus 19 

Maiden's Story of Love 

Mazurka de Concert 

Windflower Polka, Cornet and 
Piano 



MARYAN S. ROZYCKI 

PUBLISHER 

2006 N. HOYNE AVENUE 

Phone Humboldt 1923 



Illinois College of Music 

AND DRAMATIC ART 



FACULTY 

PIANO— Maryan S. Rozycki, Miss 

Mae McDonnall, Mr. E. Glomb 
VOCAL— Mrs. A. Nering, Mr. El- 
wood A. Emery, Miss L. Strealau 
ORGAN— Mr. E. Glomb 
HARP— Mr. Kajetan Attl 
VIOLIN — Mr. T. Witz, Mr. E. 

Green f eld 
CORNET-Mr. A. Vlemnick 
ZUHji^R, GUITAR, MANDOLIN— 

Mr. O. E. Fisher 
WIND INSTRUMENTS — Prof. A. 

Michal. ki 
LANGUAGES-Prof. E. Reichelt 
Send for Catalogue 



Scboolol Expression & Drdmatic Art 

Under the personal direction of 
MABEL LEWIS HOWATT 

CHICAGO CONSERVATORY 

MARYAN S. ROZYCKI 

PRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR 

1225 North Ashland Avenue 

COR. MILWAUKEE AVENUE 
PHONE HAYMARKET 100 PIONEER BLDG. 



TREES, SHRUBS AND PLANTS 

PETERSON NURSERY 

WM. A. PETERSON, Proprietor 

CHICAGO 



CITY OFFICE: 108 LA SALLE STREET 
NURSERY: LINCOLN & PETERSON AVES. 



Don't wait until local events have become history before 
you read about them — but read 

The Jef f ersonian 

every Saturday morning and get 

Your History in the Making 



A Live Newspaper 

devoted to the General Interests of the 27th Ward 



Advertising that Pays 



Commercial and Society Job Printing 



3926 ELSTON AVE., - CHICAGO, ILL. 

Phone Irving Park 37 



p. L. HEDBERG, Pres. 

1. Draft Shield 

2. Dust Shield 

3. Window Slide 

4. Prevents Rattling 

5. Excludes Rain and Snow 



G. F. HERHOLD, Sec. and Treas 

Five in One 



The "Chicago" all Metal Strips 

In Copper and Zinc 
Create that easy sliding of windows 



ADAPTABLE FOR 

Sliding Windows 

French Windows 

Transom Windows 

Casement Windows and Doors 



They are far more convenient and 
sanitary and less expensive than 
STORM WINDOWS. 

Durability, Reliability, and Prac- 
ticality proved by a number of 
years service. 



Manufactured and Installed Exclusively by 



Chicago Metal Weather Strip Co., 



1617 N. Troy St. 
CHICAGO 



Telephone Humboldt 3715 



ON THE SQUARE 



UJ 
of 
< 

d 

ul 
1 

I- 
z 
o 



HOMES SOLD 

ON MOMTHLX " 
PAYMENTS 
SAMS AS 

RENT 



^^^ STEAMSHIP 

TICKETS 

^ Tff/iUP/l/fTS 
. or THE 

' WORLD 



LANDS 

:joshusam 



\AXE 

LOANS 



MILWAUKEEAVE. 



MONROE 



Wif/TE r/RE 

INSURANCE^ 



MILWAUKEE 



WE 
BUY 



o 

z 

H 

X 

n 

(/) 
!P 

c 

> 
n 



ETXCHANCC 

HOUSES ^FARnS 



ON THE SQ.UARE 



For anything in the 

REAL ESTATE LINE 

Consult 

W.J.&(.B.MOORE 

MAIN OFFICE 
169 JACKSON BOULEVARD 



IRVING PARK OFFICES 
41st Court and Irving Park Bd. 
Kedzie Ave. and Irving Park Bd. 
Addison and Kedzie Avenues 



6% Bonds 



^100 



PRINCIPAL 
AND INTEREST 
GUARANTEED 



«Ofl 



FIRST MORTGAGES 

$1000 to $2500 

INTEREST 5* TO 6' ; 

AMERICAN 
BOND & MORTGAGE CO. 

BANK FLOOR 
169 JACKSON BOULEVARD 




M/LWAUK££flVE, 



Our methods are original. 

We want to do your work. 

Because we are successful. 

We make teeth fit for a king. 

Not too high-priced for a working man. 

Write for a free booklet. 

ROTZOLL DENTISTS 



OPPOSITE CLEAVER STREET 



1100 MILWAUKEE AVENUE 




WECKLER BOAT CO. 

Telephone Irving Park 118 2719 Irving Park Boulevard (at the River) 

Designers and Builders : 

Yachts. Power Cruisers, Family and Pleasure Launches, Row Boats and Dingeys 

Sketches, Blue Prints and Catalogues furnished on request 

Call and have a ride in Demonstrator 



Wm. D. Kerfoot Geo. Birkhoff, Jr. 

WM.D.KERFOOT&(0. 

85 WASHINGTON ST. 

N. W. Cor. Washington and Dearborn Sts. 

Telephone Central 2773 

CHICAGO 



Real Estate 
Loan and 
Financial Agents 



Special attention given to the inter- 
ests of non-residents 



WHAT 




CAN DO FOR YOU 

It can do for you what it has done for 
others who suffered untold agony from Ec- 
zema, Itch, Rash, Pimples, Dandruff, Skin 
Diseases, Tender, Ill-Smelling Feet or Corns. 

We receive daily testimonials from grate- 
ful sufferers who have been cured by our 
SKIN=A=FIRE. 

Here is a typical case of a sufferer, Mrs. 
F. H. Anger, 2442 W. North Ave.: Had 
Eczema on hands and arms for five years. 
It was so severe that it was necessary to tie 
a board on the arm to prevent the skin from 
cracking. Spent a small fortune trying to 
get cured without any results. Finally she 
decided to move to California with the object 
of getting some relief from her suffering. 
They had the furniture packed ready to go, 
when Mr. Anger noticed the sign of SKIN= 
A=FIRE cure for Eczema. He thought he 
would buy a bottle as the last resort. First 
application convinced them that it would 
cure her from her suffering. She used a 
bottle and a half and is still in Chicago en- 
joying good health. 

If your Druggist does not keep it send to 

HARTWIG DRUG CO. 

Milwaukee and Western Avenues, Chicago 



Oliver I. Watson 

Subdivider 



Quarter, half and five 
acre blocks, rnany of 
them in the town of 
Jefferson. Get our 
plats and prices, all 
on easy terms 

Main Office 

160 Washington Street 

Phone Main 5183 



Insist upon having 

Wm. H. Bunge 

Co/s 

Compressed 

YEAST 



It is the best made 

Wm. H. Bunge Co. 

313 to 329 North Ann Street 
Chicago 




For N\ \\\ ^.</ Fbr 

Style \<ja!: -^x^ "Wear 

Corhss-Goon 
^Vki Collars 

l2for25<l^l 

ANEW CLOSE FRONT 
COLLAR — cut on differ- 
ent lines — and more com- 
fortable than the fold collar you 
have been wearing. 



W. H. BLACKMAN - THOS. MURGATROYD 
Telephone Irving Park 1368 

BLACKMAN & 
MURGATROYD 

Hardware 

Glass, Paints, Oils, Brushes, 
Benzine, Etc. 

Gas Company's Sub-Station 

4216 IRVING PARK BLVD. 

CHICAGO 



NOV SC ami3 



(HAS. A. im (0. 

Established 1886 

THE HOME OF 

Old Stock Bourbon 

AND 

Cream of C. A. Z. Co. Rye 

AMERICA'S 

FINEST 

WHISKIES 

Good at all Times 
1643-45 MILWAUKEE AVE. 

Phone Hamboldt 771 



The 
(lidrles (. Thompson (o. 

Not Incorporated 

PUBLISHERS 




lUTOMOBILt TROUBLES^ 

AND I 

HOW TO REMEDY THEH : 

Ni; - LjM>-i.>.M4*).- - H>»>J . 



¥m^^- 



{^y^A^vt 









; CHARLES P. ROOT 






545-549 Wabash Ave. 
CHICAGO 



KJELLANDER'S 



Chocolates and Bon-Bons, 



Pure Delicious Refreshing 
Drinks 



We call special atten- 
tion to our delicious 
Cakes and home- 
made Bread, Frozen 
Creams, Puddings, 
Glace Frappe, Ices. 



4160 IRVING PARK BLVD. 

Phone Irving Park Forty -seven 



THE W.G. WOOD 
COMPANY 



INC. 



PHONES: 

Irving Park 350 and 351 - Humboldt 3099 



PAINTS 

HARDWARE 

PLUMBING 

GAS FIXTURES 

ELSTON AVE. and 
W. IRVING PK. BLVD. 



Do you live on the North-West Side ? 

Is your business on the North-West Side ? 

If so, why not do your banking at a 

North-West Side Bank? 



The 



North- Western 

Trust and Savings 

Bank 



1152-54 Milwaukee Avenue 

Near Division Street 

OFFERS EVERY BANKING 
FACILITY 



Under State and Clearing House Supervision 
Capital and Surplus $250,000.00 



P^ys 3% on Savings 

First Real Estate Gold Mortgages, netting the investor 
frr^■r,-^ .^ i^r^ p.o/^ ^1x,x«.t« ^^ hand for investors 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. »3 per year and up 

3Q 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



^i€ is enough 
i^JI^ to open a 
savings ac- 
count at 3 per cent 
compound interest 



CapHal .o:nci^ 



^4 50.^00 



30QO00OOQ 





Sayings depart- 
ment is open even' 
ings, too, on Mon 
days and Satur 
days 



Deposits 
■ : ■ over 

2500000.00 



Idle Money 



is like an idle man—it ac- 
complishes nothing. 
Put your money to work. Deposit it in this bank where 
it will earn compound interest, payabU semi-annually 

Security Bank 

■■■■■■i OP CHICAGO ■■■■■■■■■■i 

MILWAUKEE AVENUE, CORNER CARPENTER STREET 



WE NEVER SLEEP 



REGAN 
PRINTING HOUSE 

PRINTERS AND BINDERS 
83-91 PLYMOUTH PLACE 

TBLEPHONE HARRISON (OSI 

CHICAGO 



